Synthesis and upgradation of castor seed bio-oil using catalytic cracking

Abstract

Global energy crisis and increasing energy demand has focused attention to alternative resources. Biomass resources can be considered as solution for this crisis. The bio-oil obtained from biomass has some major draw backs such as high water content, acidity and lower hating value. Catalytic pyrolysis shows the potential to satisfy the demand for bio-oil with an improved quality. Most of the research work supported by zeolite catalyst for upgrading bio-oil. Although researchers found good quality of oil, still they suffer from catalyst de-activation, coke formation, and generation of higher gas yields. Up on surveying the literature, it was found that much work has not been done using basic catalysts. In the available literature also, it was mentioned that Calcium Oxide works well for biomass vapor upgradation. Based on this finding, Calcium oxide is chosen as catalyst in our study. In the present work catalytic pyrolysis of caster seed oil was carried out over CaO catalyst. The catalyst was activated at 650 0C and characterized by X-ray diffraction, SEM and studied their morphological structure. Pyrolysis experiments were performed in a semi-batch reactor with Nitrogen purging and without Nitrogen purging at various temperatures (450, 500, 525 0 C), with a constant heating rate of 20o C/min and various catalyst to oil ratio (1:4, 1:9, 1:12) respectively. The liquid obtained from catalytic pyrolysis of caster seed oil with Nitrogen purging at different catalyst ratio was compared with the liquid obtained without nitrogen purging at different catalytic ratios were characterized by FTIR and physical properties analysis. Upgraded bio-oil registered higher calorific value than raw pyrolytic oil. Nitrogen purging resulted higher oil yields and calorific value, of which the highest yield of 56.6% was obtained at 500 0 C, with catalyst to oil ratio 1:9.